Tim Cook: FBI demands are both hard and wrong

Tim Cook will make the company's case for encryption to ABC News this evening. Photo: ABC News/"World News Tonight with David Muir"

If you can’t wait to see Apple CEO Tim Cook’s talk with ABC News anchor David Muir in a few hours, the network has released a couple of interesting previews ahead of the airing.

In them, Cook addresses both the difficulty of the company’s refusal to the FBI’s demands to unlock a terrorist’s phone and his less-than-satisfactory dealings with the Obama administration and the Justice Department.

In the first excerpt, Muir asks Cook about Apple’s justification for not cooperating to help authorities bypass the password lock on a phone used by San Bernardino assailant Syed Farook. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people and wounded 22 others in an attack last December, and the FBI and Justice Department are demanding that Apple comply with a court order requiring them to assist in the investigation.

“To some people listening to this argument who understand where you’re coming from, who might say this was a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, and if ever there was a case that Apple might make an exception, that this might be that moment,” Muir asks. “Do you really want to plant the flag on privacy and safety on Sayed Farook’s iPhone?”

“The protection of people’s data is incredibly important,” Cook replies. “And so the tradeoff here is, we know that [assisting the FBI] could expose people to incredible vulnerabilities. This is not something we would create. This would be bad for America and set a precedent that many people in America would be offended by.”

Muir follows up by asking if Cook suspects he “might be able to prevent a terrorist attack” by cracking the phone.

“David, some things are hard,” Cook responds. “And some things are wrong. And some things are both. This is one of those things.”